Off to the Orient.

To the Oriental Plaza, that is. :)

I went on an adventure today and challenged myself to take the subway system to the Oriental Plaza shopping centre. My student, earlier today, had recommended going there when I asked her if there were any good shopping malls and districts in this area.


I needed to get new shoes as I've been wearing these New Balance running shoes for everything, regardless of whether it matched with my attire or not. I should have brought my entire collection of shoes to Beijing.





Navigating the subway system was easier than I had imagined. There are three lines currently in operation: the Yellow (Line 13), the Blue (Line 2), and the Red (Line 1). I had to ride all of them to get to my destination. There are about ten more lines scheduled to open before the 2008 Olympics. The great thing about taking the subway is that it's fast and cheap (only 5 RMB each way), but the subway is often crowded and reeks of human waste and body odour.

The mall itself was nothing spectacular as it looked just like any of the malls in Vancouver, but then again, I've never seen anything like it here in Beijing. What was nice about the Oriental Plaza was the array of stores of which I've never seen or heard of before, which offered something different from the usual GAP's, Banana Republic's, and Old Navy's. In fact, I have yet to see these American retail stores here in Beijing.

While strolling throughout the mall, I came across the Beijing Volkswagen Olympic Forum and the Beijing Audi Forum across from it, which were both adjacent to the BMW Lifestyle Store. With an exception to the BMW Lifestyle Store, they sold automobiles inside a mall! Now this was definitely unique, so I took a quick tour inside. Mmm... Polo... Sagitar... Touareg... Phaeton... Yes, I will keep dreaming. :D

Now to recap other notable events this past week, I will clump them all together here:








My new flatmates, Moe and Clara, cooked dinner for Stan and I last Sunday.








Although the main beef dish which simmered in the pan a little too long was rendered inedible (which was unfortunate as Clara had gone to a speciality store far away to get), they managed to serve up a spicy dish of string beans and peanuts substitute with salad, eggs, and tomatoes.



And the soup! Mustn't forget about the delicious soup of whatever it was!








After a few weeks of trying to get high speed internet in my apartment, I finally got it installed, so no more lugging my heavy PowerBook around to internet cafe's and spending hours upon hours there. Now I could spend hours upon hours inside without ever leaving my flat! ;) I'm just joshing around of course.


With great excitement, I went out to the electronics district to buy another AirPort Express the very next day so that I wouldn't be tethered to my desk by an ethernet cable. The beauty of watching DVD's from the comfort of my own bed and chatting to friends online while sitting on the can! Got the AirPort Express at a great price too. After haggling the merchant, I got the price reduced from 1,200 RMB to only 900 RMB. That's $130 CAD! The MSRP for the AirPort Express is priced at $159 CAD on Apple's own website.

I also caught a bad cold during the week and the worst of it was when I was conducting a class. I was blowing my nose off, coughing my lungs out, and sneezing my head off. I wanted to croak over on the floor in a fetus position and scream "I'm dying! I'm dying!", but with my voice almost lost, screaming was impossible. I apologised profusely for not taking the day off and exposing her to the potential of spreading my cold. I bet this cold had everything to do with my body trying to adjust to the disgustingly despicable air quality here. (Message to friends back home: please send bottled Vancouver air, post haste!) I'm doing much better now with the aid of Chinese medicine, HALLS, and lots of oolong tea, but the cough still remains. sadly, my flatmate, Clara, has begun to cough...

In addition to the pollution, the humidity is very low, so my throat dries up very quickly, making it a little painful to breathe. I went out and bought an air humidifier to help me sleep at night.

In closing, I'll leave you with a few new Chinese phrases I've learned from my brother and flatmates. My apologies if I have erred in my phonetics, or "pinyin" as it is called here.

- Ni dan bi ne ("nee dan bee na"): Don't fuck with me.
- Er bai wu ("are buy wuoo"): Idiot. Literally: "two-hundred-and-fifty" or 250.
- Huang shu ("huang shoe"): Pornography. Literally: "yellow book".

These words will come in very handy, especially when a driver cuts me off on my bike path. Hey, it adds character! :D